About

About the Society: its activities and organisation

Workshops

Twice annually the Society runs a workshop series. The speaker’s paper is circulated in advance of the workshop. At the workshop itself the speaker presents on their paper followed by discussion. Internationally recognised scholars, as well as students at the early stages of their PhDs, have given papers. Academics and researchers based outside Ireland have come especially to Dublin to participate, and workshop papers have been delivered by philosophy and political science lecturers as well as law lecturers. The list of workshops so far is here.

Public Lectures

The Society aims to arrange for legal philosophers of international renown to give public lectures on a topic of their choice. Professor Joseph Raz delivered the inaugural lecture. Professor William Twining delivered the second, and Professor Philip Pettit delivered the third.

Student essay competition

With sponsorship provided by Eversheds O’Donnell Sweeney the IJS has run an essay competition for students of jurisprudence in Ireland. The winning essay was chosen by experts in Jurisprudence who are based outside Ireland. The inaugural essay prize was won by Ms Donna Lyons.

Symposium

Themed symposia are convened on an ad hoc basis. Dr Tom Hickey convened the first of these: a Symposium on Constitutionalism and Legal Theory, which took place at NUI Galway in 2008. Dr Maria Cahill convened the second IJS Symposium on Jurisprudence and Legal Theory at University College Cork in 2010. The third IJS Symposium was convened by Dr Oran Doyle in Trinity College Dublin in 2011. It was a Symposium on the book Law and Justice in Community by Garrett Barden and Tim Murphy.

Supporting the IJS

With the generous support of the Law School at Trinity College Dublin and also the law schools at NUI Galway and UCC the Society’s events have been free to attend (or subject to a very modest registration fee) and members have never been asked for subscriptions. The generous prize for the Student essay competition was sponsored by Eversheds O’Donnell Sweeney. The existence of this website and the IJS’s communications system is entirely thanks to Daithí Mac Síthigh. (It should be noted that the website and communications are maintained by others lacking the tech expertise of Daithí and this explains any glitches you encounter.) The Inaugral Public Lecture of the IJS was kindly funded by the Long Room Hub Initiative, Trinity College Dublin. Griffith College Dublin kindly hosted the second public lecture.